Automobile doors commonly have an interior trim panel with one or more openings in which manually operated devices such as a release handle and power lock and power window switches are received. These doors also commonly have one or more drain holes in their bottom edge for draining water that enters the interior of door past the window seal. These manually operated devices are commonly gasketed with foam at the openings in the trim panel in an effort to prevent outside air entering the drain holes from passing through these openings into the passenger compartment when the passenger compartment pressure falls below atmospheric. However, the sealing effectiveness at these openings in the trim panel is limited because the foam gasket or other sealing means can not be allowed to interfere with the manual operation of the door handle and switches. As a result, these openings are only partially sealed to leave clearance for the operating movement of these devices. And if this sealing clearance is reduced in an effort to minimize the air flow therethrough, there can then develop wind noise which is also undesirable.
As a result, the sealing at these locations is typically a compromise and relatively cold outside air at air flow rates that increase with the differential pressure can flow over the hand of a driver or passenger creating an undesirable condition. For example, this drawing of relatively cold outside air through such partially sealed openings can occur in the winter when the heating system is pulling considerable air from the passenger compartment for recirculation or on a cool night when a sun roof is opened.
Various air flow systems have been proposed for incorporation in an automobile door but they are typically concerned with exhausting air from the passenger compartment to the outside and not with controlling air inflow in any manner associated with the drain holes in the doors or with outside air entering at unsealed areas of the manually operated devices on the doors. Examples of such passenger compartment air exhaust systems in a door are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,392,654 and 3,791,693.